Wellcome Trust releases first Science Education Tracker report

This week the Wellcome Trust launched the report of the first Science Education Tracker (SET), a survey of “young people’s attitudes and experiences of science education and careers”. The 2016 SET was commissioned by Wellcome and carried out by Kantar Public with support from the Royal Society, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and the Department for Education.

The survey is based on a “nationally representative sample of 4,081 young people aged 14-18 in education in state-funded schools in England”, and looks to map young people’s engagement and attitudes toward science education and careers to better inform policy, education and public engagement.

The key findings of the 2016 SET include:

68% of young people found science lessons at school “very interesting or fairly interesting”

43% of young people were “very or fairly interested in a science-related career”

35% of young people said “having a good teacher” had encouraged them to learn science

29% of GCSE students reported doing practical science less than once a month

28% of young people wanted to do STEM-related work experience but were unable to

Using our Labdisc you have a Science Lab in the palm of your hand. The device has built in sensors and external sensors. They cover general science, physics, biology and chemistry and environment. The devices link to a free software app and can be used with Apple IOS, iPad, Android, Windows, Linux and Chromebooks. Using these devices would mean that the 29% of the young people surveyed in the report who only managed one experiment a month would have regular access to a device which they can carry out experiments with.